Vatican Intelligence

"Intelligent Design isn't science even though it pretends to be, if you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."

Here is your quiz of the day: who said this?
No, you're not going to guess.

This dissenting opinion on the recent decision of the Kansas Board of Education to teach Intelligent Design in science classes was proffered by... the Vatican's chief astronomer, Rev. George Coyne. See, you've already learned something reading this. There is a chief astronomer at the Vatican?! Yes, and his abode is not the shabbiest either - the observatory is at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence just outside Rome, and you know how Jesuits always found the best places to settle. The castle has three domes, one the expected Bernini-designed coupola for the chapel, and the other two for the observatory telescopes! I could insert some smart-ass quip on the necessity of the terrestrial envoys of God to actually have to look into the sky to know what's there, but that's exactly the point of Dr. Coyne.
He says that, of course, the Big guy created the whole thing, but that since then he has been pretty hands-off, behaving more like "an encouraging parent", "not continually intervening". God flipped the switch, he says in substance, but "science explains the history of the universe". God in his infinite freedom continuously creates a world that reflects that freedom at all levels of the evolutionary process to greater and greater complexity."

We don't agree on how the switch was pulled, but since neither you nor I know - or can even begin to comprehend - how the world was created, your version is as good as any. It's not every day that you will hear me say I agree, even in part, with the Catholics...

The complete AP article is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051118/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_evolution;_ylt=AnGYIZ6FZfsLC8s6xQ7B2j6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-